


dusk.

by dimpleddarling



Series: it's midnight. - college au [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, Established Relationship - Havolina, F/M, Fluff, Havolina, Romance, Roommate Heists, Royai - Freeform, Slowburn - Royai, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 21:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21655636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dimpleddarling/pseuds/dimpleddarling
Summary: “You wouldn’t happen to know what would happen if someone in your dorm was accidentally murdered, right?” Rebecca sinks down, the annoyance clear on her face. Her lab partner, Riza, turns to her with only a hint of alarm in her eyes. Across from Rebecca, Jean looks up, a concerned expression on his face for his girlfriend. The fourth of their little lab group, a boy with dark hair, seems to be hunched over some notes, but based on the way he slightly turns in her direction, Rebecca knows that he’s listening.Or, where the gang is formed and get into some trouble involving roommates, campus security, and Duke hoodies.--The second part of my college AU, midnight!Established HavolinaSlowburn Royai
Relationships: Rebecca Catalina/Jean Havoc, Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang
Series: it's midnight. - college au [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557361
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	dusk.

“You wouldn’t happen to know what would happen if someone in your dorm was accidentally murdered, right?” Rebecca sinks down, the annoyance clear on her face. Her lab partner, Riza, turns to her with only a hint of alarm in her eyes. Across from Rebecca, Jean looks up, a concerned expression on his face for his girlfriend. The fourth of their little lab group, a boy with dark hair, seems to be hunched over some notes, but based on the way he slightly turns in her direction, Rebecca knows that he’s listening.

“Why are we plotting the murder of your roommate now, Becks?” Jean asks, sliding her a cup of coffee. She takes it, shooting him a grateful smile at the thoughtful gesture. It’s only after she’s swigged four or five sips of the beverage that she recounts her harrowing tale of the morning.

“So, my roommate has a habit of being super snobby about cleanliness. Like—she won’t even go into the bathroom if she sees that there’s a towel out. So yesterday, I was super tired after our library trip that I completely forgot and just dumped my bag on the ground, climbed into bed, and fell asleep. And this morning, when I got up, my bag was gone! I ran around the room, looking for it, and when I stepped out, one of my neighbors was leaving, and told me that my freaking roommate Kimmy FREAKING LEE had gotten up early this morning and thrown my bag in the trashcan! With my LAPTOP and ALL MY WORK! I had to run downstairs and sift through trash to find my bag, and by then, I was already late. But I didn’t want to come to class all…trashy, so I had to take a shower and make my way to class dripping wet—don’t even THINK about making that into a dirty joke, Jean, I’m not in the mood.” By the end of her long winded tale, Rebecca’s panting, eyes narrowed with a sort of irritation that simply cannot be falsified. 

Jean clamps his mouth shut with a mumble that sounds suspiciously like “There’s no joke to make, you already made it,” but no one decides to comment on that. 

The fourth of their group, the dark haired boy who had been bent over his notes, is now fully paying attention to them, mouth slightly hanging open in outrage. 

“Wow, yeah. I can see why you might want to murder her.” Riza says, her tone sympathetic. “I don’t think that’s a safe place for you to be living, Rebecca. Maybe you should move out.” 

“Why should she move out?” The dark-haired boy cuts in (Rebecca’s really tired of calling him the dark-haired boy, she should know his name by now) while shooting Riza a quizzical look. “The roommate’s being a devil on Earth. If anything, she should move out. Who doesn’t use a bathroom just because there’s a towel there? Your roommate’s being too high maintenance.” 

Riza’s irritated by being questioned by the other boy, Rebecca can tell. “Oh yeah, how the hell are you going to make her move out? Ask her nicely? Yeah, I bet the next thing she’d be throwing in the dumpster would be your body.” Riza shoots back. 

Oh dear, they’re at it again. If there was one person to get Riza all riled up, it would be this kid. He manages to make sure that any aspect of diplomacy and calm flies out the window when it comes to her blonde friend.

“Actually, I think I have to agree with Roy here. I think we need to concoct a plan to get her kicked out.” Jean cuts in, rubbing his chin. 

(Roy! That’s his name. What’s his last name—some kind of horse—? Lord, she’d have to ask Jean later.) 

The two boys put their heads together, a flurry of whispers and chuckles, dark black hair and blonde hair clashing. It’s when they’re scheming like this that Rebecca realizes that the pair are the opposite of her and Riza. 

Well, Riza hasn’t outwardly said that Rebecca’s her best friend, but come on, who comes over and smacks your boyfriend when he’s being stupid? Your best friend, duh. 

And that being said…that would mean that Roy and Riza would be an interesting pair. Hmmm…that could be her side mission on whatever ridiculous quest the boys were concocting. 

“Okay! We need to work on this, but it should be done by today. Let’s meet in the cafeteria, usual time.” Jean says, referencing their hangout spot. 

“This is going to get us thrown in jail, won’t it?” Riza sighs, and not even Rebecca’s comforting hand on her shoulder can soothe her. 

The twin grins that Roy and Jean sport are a bit concerning. “Get your wallets ready.” Roy rubs his hands together, mischievous. His grin only widens when Riza groans theatrically and slumps forward, head hitting the desk in front of her. 

\- 

It’s a long day. Rebecca clicks her pen so many times in ENG 320 that her desk partner actually reaches across and gently takes the pen away from her. By the time her classes finish, she’s tired, slouching, and her hair is leaning over in her “bun”. It’s safe to say that she’s not at her 100%, and the prospect of going back to her dorm with her hellish roommate is draining her even more. 

She makes it to the cafeteria first, staring at the clock that reads 1 AM. She sets her head down on the table, closing her eyes for a few minutes, trying to get a few precious minutes of sleep before the others arrive. 

Her “sleep” doesn’t last long, within a few minutes the door swings open, along with an icy gust of air. It’s the muffled music that clues her in that it’s Jean. If she listens closely, she can hear the beats of ‘Back in Black’ by ACDC. He sinks down next to her, and gently massages the back of her neck. They don’t really talk when she’s tired, considering that she wouldn’t be able to hold a conversation even if she tried. He’s quite fine with it—he’s plenty content to listen to his music and gently rub the tension out of her body—he doesn’t even complain when she reaches up to tug the earbuds out of his ears before leaning up to kiss him gently. 

Soft Rebecca is one of his favorites. Sure, he loves it when she’s all worked up and passionate about something—something about the look in her eyes—but he loves her all sweet and soft too. It’s this Rebecca that likes to slouch against him, like she is now, that also likes it when he plays with her hair and drops kisses to the crown of her head now and then. 

The couple snags thirty minutes to themselves before Roy strolls in, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his lab coat. He shoots the two an apologetic smile for his tardiness, mumbling something about a “chemical explosion” and “stupid interns”. He looks around, raising an eyebrow at their missing fourth member. 

“Riza?” He asks. 

“She texted, her boss is making her stay a bit later than usual.” Havoc replies. Roy takes this as an invitation to leave Jean and Becca alone, making a cup of coffee while stifling his yawns in his fist. 

Sure enough, fifteen minutes later, Riza rushes in. Based on the way she’s panting, Rebecca would guess that she was running. The law firm was all the way across campus, after all. How the girl managed to run in a professional dress and heels was beyond her. (Why she wore a dress when it was that cold outside was also another question that would have to be asked later). 

“I’m here. Sorry. I think we might have to murder my boss after we off your roommate.” Riza mumbles, sinking down next to Roy. The dark-haired boy looks at her for a moment, before sliding his coffee over to the girl, who he’s deemed to be in more need of the caffeine. 

She takes it, sips slightly, and finds it acceptable based on the way she fervently tips her head back to drain the liquid into her mouth. 

“Don’t mention it.” Roy says cockily. 

“Wasn’t going to.” Riza counters coolly. 

“Okay, let’s get started.” Rebecca pulls herself off of Jean’s shoulder, leaning forward. “Boys, what’s the plan?”

Jean nods, grinning. He’s been waiting for this part. “You take the lead, Colonel.”

“Wait, why is he the leader?” Becca interrupts. 

Roy sighs, as though this is taking a large amount of his patience (considering that he has none, it might as well have) and speaks slowly as though he’s talking to a child. “Because I’m the one who came up with the plan.” 

“I’m his second-in-command.” Jean says with a toothy grin. 

“Not quite.” Roy cuts in, and Jean practically deflates like a balloon. If they weren’t discussing how to murder her roommate, Becca might have kissed him for how cute that was. 

Roy raises a placating hand before gesturing to Riza. “I need to have her as the second in command, she’s the one who actually has a head. So she’s the Lieutenant and you’re the 2nd Lieutenant, Jean.” 

“And me?” Becca demands. 

“Warrant Officer.” Jean offers, and Roy bangs his fist against the table. “Agreed.” The chemist says, shrugging. “You need to be as far away from this plan as possible.”

“So, what exactly is the plan?” Riza asks. 

“It’s really simple. Roy and I are going to dress up in all black, hoods and the whole ninja outfit, and sneak into Becks’ room. We’re going to pretend like we’re robbing the place, when in reality, we’re going to make their room messy. Here’s the catch—we’re only going to use her roommate’s stuff. That way, she’ll shriek and want to pull her hair out. We’re going to keep doing it until she leaves for good.” Jean explains, rubbing his hands together as though he was a master planner. 

Roy raises his hand to speak and only lowers it when Becca snorts at his student-like display. “I still think we should draw on her face.” He says, glowering at the quiet cackles Becca smothers behind her hand. 

“She’ll wake up!” 

“Oh, what’s she gonna do, Jean? Throw a towel at us?” 

“Boys, I think this is a terrible plan.”

“No one asked for your opinion, Riza!” Roy grumbles, burying his face into the table, throwing his arms over his head. 

“You didn’t let me finish,” Continues Riza, ever-so-calm, “But it’s the best we can do without you two setting fire to the place.”

Something that very suspiciously sounds like “That was plan B” comes from the lump of arms that is Roy, and is very quickly accompanied by a startled squeak when Riza smacks the back of his neck. 

“I’m in. As long as you guys let me get my sleep in, I’ll be fine. Be sure to touch her stuff, not mine. Also, if I wake up and there’s Sharpie on my face, I’ll slaughter you two.” Becca says, voice practically dripping with honey, despite the threatening look on her face. 

“Got it. We’ll launch the plan tomorrow night. Let’s go, Becks.” Jean says, standing up and extending a hand to pull her up. Her bangles click and clang when she slips her hand into his and allows him to pull her up, and he’s quickly rewarded with a small kiss to his cheek. 

“You two coming?” Becca turns to Riza, who remains sitting. 

To Becca’s surprise, Riza lifts her finger to her lips. “He fell asleep.” She gestures to Roy, who hasn’t moved from his Roy-lump. “I’ll stay with him until he wakes up.”

And maybe it’s just her imagination, but as she steps outside with Jean and nestles into her boyfriend’s side, she can see Riza gently stroking her fingers through very familiar dark hair. 

Hm. Maybe she doesn’t need to interfere at all.

—

They’re giddy with excitement. They barely utter a word to each other during their morning class, each of them studiously hunched over their notebooks, not missing a second of their lecturer’s droning voice. Becca notices the boys exchanging a few looks here and there, Riza doodling something that looks like a jail cell, but other than that, they are the perfect models of behavior. No one sees the way Rebecca slides a copy of her dorm key over to Jean. There is nothing amiss with the group. They part ways like that, not saying a single word to each other, excited at the possibility of enacting their plan tonight. 

Rebecca doesn’t even need to pretend that she’s sleeping by the time that the day is over. She’s dead tired after working her shift at the campus cafe, and as soon as she gets home, she crawls under her blankets and falls asleep, dead to the world. 

_You’re gonna wanna be my best friend baby~~_

Rex Orange County? In her dream? 

**_You’re gonna wanna be my best friend baby~~_ **

Becca’s eyes flicker open—it’s a struggle. She’s so warm and comfortable in her bed, and her eyes feel like warm sand, shifting downwards to close—but no! Her phone’s bright, too bright, and Riza’s glaring at her—

Riza?

Well, not Riza, not really. The picture of Riza that Becca had snapped a few weeks ago and had set as her friend’s contact photo (along with the ringtone—appropriate, right?) was glaring at her. Becca manages to drag her finger across the screen, lifting the phone to her ear. 

“Hello?” She mumbles sleepily.

“Hey, Becks. Sorry to wake you up, but you need to come bail your stupid boyfriend and his best friend out of jail. I would, but I don’t have my ID on me, I’m just now coming home from a trial.” Riza sounds tired and exasperated, and almost immediately, Becca is moving, ready to come to her aid. 

“Be there in a few.” Becca mumbles. She slides down from her bunk, her feet landing in an open makeup palette. “What the fu—?” 

Her roommate’s side of the room is completely trashed, with Kimmy Lee mysteriously missing in action. Well, Becca wasn’t about to clean this up. She grabs her purse, shoves her feet into her shoes, and steps out. 

When she gets to the campus security, Riza is there, arms wrapped around herself, foot tapping. Damn, the poor girl was stuck in a cocktail dress again—Becca should have snagged a jacket or a change of clothes for her. The boys are in the cell, looking quite sorry. Rebecca shows her ID to the guard, who shakes his head in amusement as he unlocks the two from the cell. 

They step outside, and Becca studies the two “criminals”. Jean’s sporting a welt on his upper cheek, and Roy has a black eye. Jean’s grinning sheepishly at her, and she simply sighs and pulls him down for a kiss hello. 

“No kiss for me?” Roy asks.

Riza’s only response is to aggressively poke in the direction of Roy’s eye, which the boy easily dodges and grumbles about. 

“What happened?” Becca demands, relinquishing her grasp on Jean. “Explain to me, now.”

“You’re really hot when you’re mad, baby.” Jean says, taking her hand, his usual tactic when he wants to stall. 

“Jean.” 

“Fine, fine. Roy, you want to take point?”

“Nah, that’s all you bud.” Roy grins, working off his hoodie. Out of the corner of her eye, Rebecca can see him gently guide Riza’s arms and head through the appropriate spots.

“So, we come in, all covertly dressed and everything. And we start y’know, doing our thing. What you failed to tell us that Kimmy Lee has the ears of a hawk. We barely managed to ruffle her things around before she woke up!” Jean huffs.

“What you also didn’t mention is that she’s a whole Kung Fu master or whatever! She popped me in the face and Jean got clipped by her too! I think she thought we were robbing her or whatever, because she was grabbing her laptop like it was the most precious thing in the universe. I was kinda scared, for a second I thought she was going to smack us with the laptop. But then she saw the mess and completely flipped out—like she screeched. And then she called campus security or whatever. We tried to tell him that it was a prank, but he brought us here anyways.” Roy finishes, neatly rolling up the long sleeves to fit Riza as he talks. 

“I would feel the sorry for the laptop if she smacked you two with it.” Riza comments. “It would have the poor misfortune of coming into contact with you two—hey!” Roy, who had been pulling the hood up and tying up the strings, flicks her forehead. 

“But I think you’re good, Becky. I don’t think she’s going to want to live in your dorm anymore.” Jean grins, and lifts his hand up for a high-five. When Becca doesn’t oblige him, Roy slaps it with a matching grin. 

“Okay, let’s drop Riza home before she freezes. I’m staying with you tonight, Jean.” Becca says, giving the two a pointed look.  


“I’m n-not cold.” Riza grumbles. If her legs hadn’t been exposed to the cold, she would have been happily swaddles and warm within the confines of Roy’s jacket. 

“Yes, you are.” An amused Roy grumbles, then huffs when Riza’s hand reaches out to smack him in the stomach. “Come on, let’s get you inside before you turn into an icicle.” 

They make sure that Riza’s safely inside before turning and walking in the opposite direction, towards Jean and Roy’s dorm room. 

“So,” Becca begins, lightly pausing to see the way her exhale makes pretty clouds in the cold weather. The swing of her and Jean’s interlocked hands fuels her, pushes her to ask the next question. “You were helping her into your hoodie.” 

“Who, Riza? Yeah, she was cold. She gets cold really easily.” Roy shrugs.

“How would you know that?” Becca challenges.

“They’re childhood friends, Becks. Used to go to the same school and everything.” Jean grins, then looks terrified. “Oops. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. Pretend you don’t know.” 

But she does know! And she can’t help but feel like Riza should have been the one to tell her. But fine. She keeps it to herself, keeps quiet, doesn’t say anything. 

In the morning, when Riza walks into class, all it takes is one look at Rebecca for Riza to come to a realization. The blonde sighs, and smacks the back of Jean’s neck, an action that makes an ear-splitting sound. 

“OW! What the hell, Riz?” Jean scowls.

“You told her! What did I tell you?! I said that I’d tell her on my own time. Now she’s going to be asking me for blackmail material on Roy for the entire day as repayment for not telling her myself!” Riza complains. 

“Sorry, it slipped out.” Jean grumbles, but his apology is quickly overshadowed by Rebecca standing up, hands on her hips in her usual melodramatic fashion. “I can’t BELIEVE you, Elizabeth! Keeping this from your best friend?!” The brunette says dramatically, adding an exaggerated shake of her head. 

“I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you a bit later. It’s not much anyways, I just knew him for a few years when we were younger, and we just reconnected now.” Riza pats her shoulder as she steps past her friend to sit in her seat. 

“That’s a lie. I used to be her beeeest friend.” Roy mocks, twisting the word. He’s egging Becca on, and she knows it, but she can’t help but fall into the trap. 

“Riza! That’s not fair! Now I want blackmail on Roy. I can’t believe I was the last one to know.” Rebecca pouts, crossing her arms. 

“You’re so late to the party. Are you always like this, Catalina?” Roy taunts. 

“Roy! Stop egging her on, or I’ll tell her about the Swamp.” Riza threatens, and to everyone’s surprise, the dark-haired boy shuts up faster than someone can snap.

“Oh, boy. I’ve got to hear this story now.” Even Jean’s invigorated, leaning forward. 

“What about the time Riza—“ Roy begins loudly, but Riza cuts him off, louder. 

“Roy performed a strip tease on the beach to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”.” Riza blurts out, and based on the way Roy flushes red, it’s a confirmed truth. 

Jean bursts out laughing, howling. Rebecca doesn’t fully lose it until Riza digs her phone out, showing the video as proof. 

For a solid five minutes, the four of them laugh. Everyone stares at them like they’re crazy, and maybe they are, but they don’t care. 

For those five minutes, things are okay. 

**Author's Note:**

> Oops I'm thinking about making an angsty third part to this--let me know what you think!
> 
> Leave a comment, drop a kudos if you enjoyed. 
> 
> And as always, catch me on tumblr: @chai-and-coffee


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